Some embodiments described herein relate to an impact absorbing apparatus. An impact absorbing apparatus can be a protective head device, such as an athletic helmet including impact absorbing pads.
Some known impact absorbing paddings include ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) foam. Such known pads absorb energy through a single mode, deformation. As a result, pads designed to mitigate the transmission of forces and/or accelerations associated with a high-energy impact can provide inadequate energy absorption for lower energy impacts, i.e., the pad can be “hard.” Conversely, a pad designed to mitigate the transmission of forces and/or accelerations associated with lower energy impacts can cease to be effective after exceeding their energy absorbing capacity, i.e., the pad can “bottom out.”
Traditionally, athletic helmets, such as football helmets have been designed primarily to mitigate the effect of high-energy impacts with the potential to cause immediate injury, such as concussions. In general, the ability of an athletic helmet to mitigate lower energy impacts has traditionally been viewed as an incidental benefit, and, as such, relatively little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of athletic helmets and impact absorbing paddings to mitigate routine lower energy impacts. The traditional view has been that if a wearer is able to walk away from a routine lower energy impact without suffering immediate injury, the athletic helmet has accomplished its purpose. Recent research, however, has suggested that the relatively lower energy impacts may contribute to long-term neurological problems such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Accordingly, a need exists for an impact absorbing pad and a protective head device that can operate in different and/or synergistic modes for high-energy impact absorption and low-energy impact absorption. For example, a need exists for a football helmet suitable to more effectively absorb routine lower energy football-related impacts as well as more serious high-energy impacts, such as impacts having a potential to cause immediate injury.